322 HUNTING. 



to help them on the trail and, if not too noisy, to keep tnem by 

 their bell-like tongues to the water-side. 



Mr, Trelawny, whose belief in a foxhound led him to under- 

 value every other description of hound, was nevertheless in- 

 debted to the rare drawing qualities of Romulus and Cardigan 

 — two rough Cumberland hounds — for many a find and many 

 a rare day's sport with his famous flying pack. Yet he cordially 

 hated their heavy sing-song tongues. Mr. Collier, too, works 

 a rough one or two ; but the otter once found, the foxhound 

 is his main stay. Rough or smooth, however, an otter hound 

 can never be too lusty nor too long in the leg ; for often where 

 he can touch-and-go, a short-legged hound is obliged to swim, 

 and at that game the otter is the better man. 



Mr. Waldron Hill, than whom few men ever followed the 

 otter with greater success, adopted the plan of crossing a tame 

 dog-wolf with his rough bitches, but down to the fourth or 

 fifth generation the puppies were so wild and unruly that they 

 were worse than useless — worse because at the very sight of a 

 sheep their wolfish nature defied all discipline, and run him 

 they would at any price. However, what with time and rating, 

 they at length became a serviceable pacL Nay, the Hon. 

 Geoffrey Hill, to whom Mrs. Waldron Hill on the death of her 

 husband kindly presented the whole pack, describes them now 

 as ' a steady-working lot of hounds.' 



Owing probably to their wolfish incisors they were able at 

 once to break up an old otter and tear him into 



A hundred tatters of brown, 



which feat, with a shout of ' Tear him and eat him, lads,' 

 Mr. Waldron Hill always encouraged them to perform. 



On a river abounding in high banks and long reaches it is 

 doubtful if hounds could ever kill an otter without the guidance 

 of man. In such water their best chance of success depends 

 mainly on the help he gives them by keeping a watchful eye 

 on the shallows above which the hounds are working their 

 game. And to give that help efficiently the man on whom 



